Natural Sciences

​

• Why study Natural Sciences at Christ's?
• Course content and structure
• Teaching
• What do our students think?
• What are we looking for? 
• How to apply
  • Subjects: what do you need? 
  • ESAT - registration by 16 Sept required
  • Interviews
  • Offers
• Helpful resources
• Open Days and Online Events
• Need more information?
   

Why study Natural Sciences at Christ's?

Christ's College has an illustrious history in Natural Sciences. Many top scientists have studied and worked here, including the legendary Charles Darwin, three Nobel Prize winners and many of today's most influential researchers. Enter Christ’s today and you join a vibrant science community of undergraduates, graduate students and Fellows.

The Darwin Society, our undergraduate science society, arranges a lively social calendar which includes an annual dinner and a garden party. On the scientific side, the society holds days to help local sixth-formers understand evolution and arranges interesting talks in College. It also created the fascinating Charles Darwin and Evolution website. You’ll also find plenty of Christ's students at university-wide clubs such as the CU Biological Society.

Course content and structure

Natural Sciences at Cambridge lets you study a wide range of subjects before you go on to specialise in a single topic in the later years. This means you get to explore a broad spectrum of interests as well as develop expertise in one aspect of science, which can be a real advantage for your future career.

The Natural Sciences course (or ‘tripos’) is a three or four-year degree. Please visit the University website for full details of the Natural Sciences course content and structure and then look at Natural Sciences course website. For detailed paper information you may find the Subject Information Overview particularly helpful. If you have further questions about the course content please contact natsci@admin.cam.ac.uk.
 

Teaching

Christ’s central location is very handy for Natural Scientists, as most of your lectures take place a short walk or bike ride away. As well as lectures, practical classes and field trips organised by the University, you have weekly ‘supervisions’ here at College. These small-group tutorial sessions give you the advantage of personally-tailored tuition from active scientists researching a diverse range of subjects.

You have the chance to work in a real research laboratory and pursue exciting discoveries of your own. And if your work is very high quality, your name might end up listed on a published paper.
 

Directors of Studies

• Dr Tom Monie Director of Studies for Biological Natural Sciences
• Dr Mike Housden Director of Studies for Chemical Sciences
• Professor Gareth Rees Director of Studies for Physical Natural Sciences

Christ's fellows in Natural Sciences

What do our students think?

Read about the experiences of students who are studying Natural Sciences here at Christ’s:

• Natural Sciences (Biological): Rachel, Sudina, James, Charlotte, Arqum, Adam, Imogen, Ryan, Xin-Yi and Hannah.
• Natural Sciences (Physical): Emily, Lucy, Elisavet, Eddie, Shadab, Ellie and Stratis.

If you’d like to hear from other Christ's students, please watch the Christ's student Q&A film, and visit our Student Profiles page.
 

What are we looking for? 

We are looking for enthusiastic, motivated, gifted science students from all backgrounds. The admissions process is designed to provide all applicants with a level playing field. While we do expect you to have a good understanding of the syllabus you are studying, we are more interested in your enthusiasm and your ability to reason and think for yourselves.

How to Apply

Visit How to Apply for full details and a timeline of the application process. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and school types, all over the world. If you’re applying from outside the UK, please read our international students section.

Biological or Physical Sciences? 

You should select Natural Sciences on your UCAS form (code BCF0). You’ll then be asked in the My Cambridge Application form which option you wish to study:

• Biological Natural Sciences
• Physical Natural Sciences

Read more about these choices at Undergraduate Natural Sciences admission information.

Please note that both Biological and Physical Sciences students can choose from the full range of first year options. If you intend to specialise in Chemistry, you can follow either the Biological or Physical Sciences pathway as long as you meet the subject requirements below.

Subjects: What do you need?

For both Biological and Physical sciences, we require students taking science A-levels to complete and pass the practical assessment.

If you are taking Scottish Advanced Highers please see the Natural Sciences page in our Scotland section, and we also welcome applicants with a range of other qualifications - see our international entrance requirements page and do not hesitate to contact the Admissions Office for advice on the subject combinations to take.

ESAT (Registration by 16 Sept required)

All applicants for Natural Sciences at Cambridge must also sit a computer-based test called the ESAT (Engineering and Science Admissions Test) as part of their application. This is the same at all Cambridge Colleges.

You will need to sit the ESAT at a Pearson VUE test centre. There are tests centres in over 180 countries - you will be able to find your nearest test centre nearer the time on the Pearson VUE website. The entry fee is £75 to sit the ESAT in the UK or Republic of Ireland, or £130 to sit the test in another country. Note that UK students in financial need can apply for a bursary voucher (a unique code which can be used instead of payment when registering - further detail will be available later in the Spring).

To help with preparation, free practice materials will be available in May 2024. There will also be more information about the test format, specification and other support materials.

There is no set score that we are looking for and we don't expect you to get every question right. The ESAT forms part of our holistic admissions process, which means that we will look at your scores in the context of your whole application.

Interviews

In late November you will receive an email letting you know whether or not you have been selected for interview. Interviews take place online in early December. The selected students are normally interviewed for 35-50 minutes in total. At Christ’s, we usually split the time into two interviews with subject-relevant academics, and you can choose to have your interviews at home (most applicants do this) or at school if easier. 

The aim of the interviews is to determine applicants' potential to benefit from the Natural Sciences course. This is not the same as factual knowledge, or even necessarily past scholastic achievement: interviewers are more concerned to identify motivation and intellectual potential.

Natural Sciences interviews have no fixed format but might include, for example, discussion of aspects of school coursework, or being presented with a science question in an unfamiliar guise and being encouraged to think it through. Further, more general information about interviews (including two useful films) is available in the Cambridge interviews section, and it's worth also having a look at supervisions (short film here), as interviews are similar to what you do every week as a Cambridge student.

Offers

Christ's College does not have fixed quotas of places for different subjects and the exact numbers admitted in any one year will depend upon the strengths of the fields of applicants in various subjects. However, Christ's aim is to admit around 24 to 30 students each year in Natural Sciences.

We define the terms of each offer individually and you will need to be academically ambitious: conditional offers are likely to be minimum A*A*A at A-level, and for IB candidates 42 points overall, with 7,7,6 in relevant Higher Level subjects, but the majority of Christ’s students arrive with higher grades. Please note that we require A-level students to complete and pass the practical assessment in science subjects.

If you are applying for Natural Sciences (Physical), we would normally ask you to achieve an A* in A-level Mathematics, or a Grade 7 in Higher Level Mathematics (Analysis and Approaches) if you are doing the IB. Almost all successful NSP applicants who take A level Further Mathematics also achieve an A* in this subject.

You can look up other qualifications in the offer levels for other exam systems and international entry requirements, and if you are applying from outside the UK please read the Christ's international students section for further information and check the country pages.

If you will have finished school when you apply, please also read about post-qualification applications, taking a gap year, and, if relevant, applying from a university.

Helpful resources

Come to an Open Day or Online Event

Online events: Our open days and events page advertises regular online opportunities as well as events you can attend in Cambridge. If you can, sign up for a College Open Day (these have online and optional in-person elements and include a subject meeting) and if you are from a state school and interested in Natural Sciences (Biological), apply for our Biological Sciences Taster Series to find out more about the College and the Natural Sciences course in person.

Further subject-specific opportunities you might wish to consider include Subject Masterclasses organised by Cambridge Admissions Office, Cambridge Physics Lectures and Natural Sciences-specific talks in the July Cambridge Open Days. Do also look out for the Cambridge Festival in March, as although it's not specifically for prospective students, there are a lot of science events. If you are a UK student from a background where there is little tradition of entry to Higher Education, you can apply to attend a Sutton Trust Summer School in Natural Sciences or to shadow a current Natural Sciences undergraduate via the Cambridge SU Shadowing

Scheme (do be aware that there's a highproportion of applicants to places for both of these last two opportunities so please don't be discouraged if you don't get a place).
 

Need more information?

For more detail of what the course involves, read Undergraduate Natural Sciences admissions on the University website, and look at the Natural Sciences Tripos website and overview booklet for prospective students too.

If you have any other queries, please send them to admissions@christs.cam.ac.uk and we’ll help however we can.
 

Back to the subject list / How to apply / Why choose Christ's?